Iron Man, Volume 1: Big Iron Review (Christopher Cantwell, Cafu)

Tony’s having a midlife crisis, or something, so he sells up his shares in Stark Unlimited, buys a buncha fancy cars and starts Fast and Furious-ing it up in the streets of New York! But an old Avengers foe, Korvac, is back with a new dastardly plan to steal the lightning and become a cyborg Jebus, or something. Big Iron? Big whoop.

Unfortunately Christopher Cantwell’s take on Iron Man doesn’t get off to a flying start and isn’t much better than Dan Slott’s dreary run was. I feel like there’s something good to be had here. Tony feeling fed up with the superhero game, the weird time jumps hinting at a possible neurological disorder, and questioning his purpose all seem like they could be developed into an interesting character study… but Cantwell doesn’t do anything of the sort here.

Instead he pairs Tony up with Patsy Walker/Hellcat (first Pepper, then MJ, now Patsy - Tony’s definitely got a type and that type is redheads!) so he has someone he can talk plot to which is: Korvac up to evil things ‘cos he’s an evil cyborg. Besides that we get to see how pitiful the Iron Man rogues’ gallery is as Tony punches nobodies called Unicorn, Cardiac and Melter. That’s probably why Cantwell drew from the Avengers’ rogues’ gallery for the big bad of this series - Tony’s got nothing.

I’m only guessing at the possible neurological condition because there’s no explanation for why the story jumps around like it does. Tony suddenly appears in a boxing ring fighting Crusher Creel and Arcade is somehow responsible; then he’s in a burger joint; then Rhodey’s kidnapped. Whu...huh…? And I don’t know why Korvac is obsessed with Christian imagery either. It’s an underwritten book even by first volume standards.

The Alex Ross covers are amazing and I loved his Iron Man suit design. Cafu’s art throughout is also fantastic. The occasional scene was amusing too, like when Tony shows up unannounced at a school and gets told by the teachers that he’s interrupting the children’s schedule, and then losing it when Melter does what he does to his car.

Overall though it’s an unimpressive beginning with a weak and silly team-up at the end that leaves the story on a cliffhanger that I’m not keen on following up on. Iron Man, Volume 1: Big Iron is one big whatever.